Help Wanted at Amazon’s Warehouses

Amazon.com has been spending heavily to add more distribution centers near U.S. urban centers. Now it has to fill the warehouses with workers.

The online retailer plans to announce Monday that it has openings for 5,000 jobs at 17 facilities, a network that extends from Tracy, Calif. to Breinigsville, Pa. The figure could rise, as Amazon has plans to build more facilities.

Amazon has been adding warehouses at a furious pace to keep up with skyrocketing sales, and to add new services such as fresh grocery delivery. The company is also becoming more reliant on goods sold by third parties, which it often stocks in its own warehouses.

For the second quarter, Amazon reported a surprise $7 million loss, due in part to its habit of spending money on broader distribution. Compared with a year earlier, its $15.7 billion in revenue represented a 22% jump, but the Seattle online retailer also spent $15.63 billion.

Amazon long resisted moving warehouses into some states for fear of triggering online sales tax, a chief competitive advantage over bricks-and-mortar retailers. As a bill opening the door for states to begin requiring online retailers to collect sales tax wends its way through Congress, analysts expect Amazon to move warehouses into more locations to speed delivery.

Earlier this year, Amazon struck a deal with Florida to invest $300 million in the state over the next three years and bring as many as 3,000 jobs to the Sunshine State. Amazon already collects sales taxes from residents of California, Texas, New York and Pennsylvania, as well as some smaller states, comprising about a third of the U.S. population.

Amazon customers in New Jersey recently become subject to sales tax, which will be followed by Virginia later this year and Nevada and Indiana in early 2014.

The company pays around $11 per hour for jobs that consist primarily of picking, packing and shipping orders, according to its website.